The present invention disclosed herein relates to nonvolatile memory devices and methods of fabricating the same, and more particularly, to resistive memory devices and methods of fabricating the same.
Examples of semiconductor memory devices used widely in recent years include Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) devices, Static RAM (SRAM) devices, and flash memory devices. The semiconductor memory devices may be classified into volatile memory devices and nonvolatile memory devices. The volatile memory devices lose data stored in memory cells, when power supply thereto is interrupted. Examples of the volatile memory devices include DRAM devices and SRAM devices. The nonvolatile memory devices retain data stored in memory cells, even when power supply thereto is interrupted. Examples of the nonvolatile memory devices include flash memory devices.
Flash memory devices are mainly used for data storage in digital cameras, MP3 players, portable phones, etc. in order to store data even without power supply thereto. However, since the flash memory devices are configured to accumulate electric charges in floating gates by high electric fields, they have a complex cell structure, which causes an obstacle to high integration. Examples of the next-generation semiconductor memory devices for overcoming the above limitation include Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) devices, Magnetic RAM (MRAM) devices, Phase-change RAM (PRAM) devices, and Resistive RAM (RRAM) devices.